Main menu

An 8-year-old girl in Sheffield, Ala., did not even think about her own safety when she saw a pit bull jump on her 4-year-old stepbrother, Desmond Tolbert, on Monday. She helped her grandmother free the little boy and then grabbed him and tried to lift him onto a car. But the dog turned its attack on her, the Times Daily reports.

Mackenzie Lebron and Desmond’s grandmother, Shelia Bradford, were walking to a nearby store where her mother, Stephanie Tolbert, and her husband, Justin Green, were, Bradford explained.

Bradford, Stephanie and Green had seen the dog earlier. They said it was friendly and they gave it water.

The next time the dog showed up, however, it became very aggressive and jumped on Desmond, Bradford said.

Popular Video

A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

Popular Video

A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

“It knocked him down and I could tell it wasn’t playing anymore,” she said.

She and Mackenzie tried pulling the pit bull away from the little boy but the dog turned on them. It bit Mackenzie several times and tried to bite Bradford, but she was wearing loose pants so the dog’s teeth only caught in the material.

“It was terrible,” Bradford said about the attack on Mackenzie. “I don’t want to ever see anything like that again in my life. Meat was just hanging off of her leg. It ripped her leg. It ripped her side.”

Stephanie Tolbert was notified of what was happening and she and Green ran to the scene and saw her bloodied daughter.

“She was saying the dog threw up on her leg, but what she was seeing was her meat,” Stephanie Tolbert said. “She said it latched on and started shaking its head.”

An ambulance was called and rushed Mackenzie to Helen Keller Hospital. She received numerous stitches to her leg, which witnesses described as a “piece of meat” after the attack. She also was bitten on her side and midsection, where the dog left a complete imprint of its teeth.

Police were called at 4:33 p.m. to the area near Saywell Street, between Columbia and Atlanta Avenue, while the attack was occurring, witnesses said.

But just before officers arrived, someone yelled for the dog to stop, calling it something like “Spotsie.” The dog immediately stopped its attack and a man grabbed it and took it away, Stephanie Tolbert said.

A few minutes later, a different man came and gave the police the dog, which this time had a collar, she said. She remembered it had scars, and she wondered if someone was fighting it.

The family is hoping the police can find out whether the dog is current on its rabies shots.

“One person — at the least — knows whose dog it is,” she said.

When Mackenzie returned home on Monday night, her eyes lit up when she saw her stepbrother, Desmond Tolbert, the Times Daily reports.

“I saved him,” Mackenzie said, giving him a big hug.

Mackenzie is still talking about the attack.

“You know how people bite into apples?" she said. "That’s how the dog bit me.”